Unbound

“The layers below the fifth are safe for us,” Naberius said. They walked as they talked, as neither Felix nor Pit were eager to draw their Domain run out any farther than necessary. “But beyond here is where the Path truly grows precipitous.”

“Why?” Pit asked, a half-instant before Felix could.

“Because the sixth layer is where the majority of your foes are Ice Elementals, instead of their Lesser or Inferior brethren.” Sitri’s old face pursed, tucking inward like she’d tased something heinously sour. “Only one has survived to see the sixth layer’s end.”

“Grimmar,” Felix said. He smiled, a weight lifting off his chest. “You had me worried for a second.”

Foris hissed at him, literally hissed—like a cat. “Do not take this lightly, Human! Grimmar was a brute, but a finer warrior I have never seen in all my years.”

Felix stopped, forcing all of them to stop as well. “Lady, I kicked his ass after being here for a month. If I can’t get farther than him, then there’s something seriously wrong with this Domain.” He glanced up, through the canyon lip above them and into the distant, swirling storm at the peak. “We’ll be fine.”

The rest of the walk was far quieter.

Eventually the winding ravines and box canyons opened up into a modestly sized, triangular portal. Modestly sized for giants, anyway. The metal and stone spires that leaned into one another were thirty feet high at their apex, and the opening was filled with swirling, arctic light. As Felix stepped closer he could feel the deep cold emanating from it, far harsher than the fourth layer had been. Pit sniffed at it and warbled in annoyance.

Felix looked to the Witches and found Naberius approaching. “Will we be split up again, when we enter?” he asked.

“No. Multiple Challengers will be sent to the same place from here on out. In a normal chieftain’s test, this would be where the Challengers are pitted against each other as well as the Domain, but…” She gestured between the two of them. “That is not a problem here.”

Pit hummed in agreement.

“We, however, cannot traverse the layers beyond this point. It is a place for Challengers only. We shall, however, know how you fare.”

Felix eyed the Witches. Sitri looked sour as usual, her cloudy eyes and withered face seemingly built to do little else but scowl. Fortis was more stoic. All of them, including Naberius, were filled with complicated emotions. People, even giant ones, rarely felt just one thing.

Sharp-faced Naberius was the most curious, however. She smiled at him, and it was actually earnest. “I admit to a newfound respect for you, Felix Nevarre. I have witnessed your power again and again during the first four layers, and I believe you will best Grimmar’s record.”

Pit cleared his throat, but the giant lady ignored him. “I warn you, however, not to reach too far. You have already proven yourself to me, and my word holds weight in the Cold Rocks Coven. I need only a potent argument to convince the Kin to allow you to seek the Kingsrock.”

“Kingsrock…I remember that name.” Felix dug around his memories. “There was a battle there.”

“One that sealed Grimmar’s position as Chieftain of the Kin, the Cold Children. My people.”

Felix’s thoughts leaped ahead. “And it’s where the Seat and Seal is located, isn’t it?”

Naberius gave a tight, barely perceptible jerk of her chin. Her voice lowered as if she were afraid of the others hearing. “It is. As monsters we cannot make use of it, but it is the heart of the Hoarfrost. Claim the Kingsrock, and you claim it all. However, and do not think that I am underestimating you, but even you cannot simply approach the the Kingsrock without preparation. Friends.” Her smile widened, creasing the sharp planes of her face. “Without an alliance with Cold Rock—without my coven—you will be lost to the storms.”

Felix wanted to roll his eyes so hard, it pained him not to—she was pushing her value pretty hard. She claimed she wasn’t underestimating him, but Felix hadn’t begun to show the Witches what he could do. You’re here for diplomacy, he reminded himself. “And what would I need to do to claim such an alliance?”

“You need only reach the end of the seventh layer and defeat the Door Guardian. Nothing more. After that, simply declare that you are finished and the Domain will return you to its entrance.”

“And if I go farther? What if I climb that mountain and beat the whole thing?”

Naberius’ expression did not change, but her Spirit sang a medley of indignation and stark fear. “You will die. None have ascended the peak. The Frostfather will not allow it. Do not be foolhardy, would-be king.”

She walked away, graceful despite her nine-foot frame, and rejoined her fellow Witches. They leaned in close, clearly peppering her with questions, but she ignored them.

“Why change now?” Pit asked, voice pitched just for the two of them.

Felix smirked. “Together, then?”

Without a backward glance, they stepped through the portal.

A blizzard raged on the other side, and it appeared that the noon sun of the fifth layer had truly set beyond the horizon. Apart from a faint, sourceless glow the Domain around them was drenched in nightfall.

And it was cold.

Felix gestured, flooding the Domain with his Mana and pulling a ten foot wall out from the ground beneath them. Stone, Rime, and Green shaping combined into Fiendstone and it was more than enough to cut the wind and snow immediately. He kept going though, until they were encased in a little cube house that fully muted the blizzard’s fury.

Auroral Forge!

Cardinal Flame!

Spears of light manifested in Felix’s hands and he stabbed both into the ground beside them, before conjuring a floating red-gold flame. The heat of all three of them cut through the cold and in thirty seconds the small interior was pleasantly warm.

“Oh, that’s much better,” Pit chirped. “Though I think my Cold Resistance is going to reach Journeyman Tier soon.”

Felix raised an eyebrow. “I can put out the flame if you want.”

“No! No.” Pit cleared his throat. “No. It’s fine.”

Something bashed into the wall he’d just raised, and they both jerked in surprise. It had moved so fast that Felix hadn’t tracked it until it was on top of them already. It hit again, and again, a flurry of blows…and the walls didn’t budge. Felix pushed his awareness outward, but the creature was already gone. Back off into the storm, he supposed.

“We’ll worry about that later,” he decided. “Now that we’re out of prying eyes, though: do you want to attempt to heal those wings?”

Something shrieked in the distance. Pit hesitated, listening to it fade. “What if it doesn’t work again?”

“It will,” Felix insisted. “I’ve more Essence now than I’ve had since Khasma.” Not nearly as much significance, though. He kept that to himself. No need to worry Pit more than necessary. “We’ve practiced this enough times, and I think this might be our last bit of peace until we’re out of here. Plus—”

“Okay! Okay.” Pit laid down onto his belly, wincing at the cold earth. “Let’s do it.”

Felix watched his friend for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and sitting himself down as well. “Convergence,” he whispered.

In a flash of light, Pit slipped into Felix’s Spirit. As they had practiced many times, Felix carefully threaded the bond between them, until he could visualize Pit’s core space as if it were directly next to his own. It appeared as a verdant forest, a replica of the Foglands where they had first met. At its center was a tree quite similar to Felix’s…and altogether different. Many trees had grown into one another, twining together as if grafted by an artist’s hand, until a variety of textures and colors sprang from the trunks into thick, far-reaching branches. Fruit dangled from those branches, glimmering and vibrating—representations of Pit’s Skills—while at the center was a nook, a hollow in the spiraling trunks, where floated a four-sided gemstone that crackled with thunder and light. His core.

Felix tightened his grip, Will and Intent as two fists that gently pulled their spaces together. It was hard, unreasonably so considering the sheer size of Felix’s stats. The first time Pit had made use of their new ability to share Skills it had been instinctive and reactionary. Every time after that had been like relearning how to walk after shattering their legs; excruciating and full of failures. But practice made perfect. “Pit!”

On cue, Pit reached out with his own Will and Intent, weaving them into Felix’s like braiding leather with steel cables. Felix couldn’t do the final pull or else he’d rip the whole working apart. It was up to Pit.

A moment passed, then another as the bond between them flexed and swayed. Pit growled, a deep, thunderous cry at the back of his throat and he lunged. Their core spaces jolted, not so much crashing into one another as rippling as they overlapped—and he seized Felix’s Sovereign of Flesh.

“Now let it sing,” Felix said through clenched teeth. “Guide it!”

Pit flared the borrowed ability, and strains of the Transcendent Skill spread like waves through his forested core space. Through their reinforced connection, Felix fed Essence into his Skill, and those waves began to tower. A wind ripped across Pit’s core space, bending branches and flattening the underbrush. The song of it overwhelmed all else; a strident, dominant call.

Pit screeched.

Flesh moved, forced against the curse that sizzled against Pit’s back. Fire burned anew, a searing light at the end of two of Pit’s Mana Gates—where his wings once were. Felix hurled more of his stored Essence at their connection, feeding all he could to the Skill. Sovereign of Flesh redoubled the pressure, backed by Pit’s Intent and Will, and the flames slowly subsided.

We have it, bud!

Felix!

Without warning, their core spaces wrenched apart, riven by a detonation of wildfire that sent Pit reeling out of Felix’s Spirit. They were hurled apart in a flash of light, and Pit howled in agony as the blaze atop his shoulders ignited into twin streamers of deep, crimson flame.

Cardinal Flame!

The magic fought against Felix, squirming from his control despite his levels and stats; just as it had every time he’d attempted to grapple it. He managed to catch the bare edge of it though, wrestling it down until the gout became a trickle, and then even that was banked behind the glowering remnants of blood and ash.

“Pit?” His friend was out but still breathing. “Goddamn it.”

Behind Pit the stone walls had charred and blackened, and everything smelled of burnt feathers. Felix hurried over and inspected his Companion’s wounds. Blood ran through Pit’s fur and feathers and splintered pieces of bone stuck up in uneven layers, as if there had been growth…and then it had burned from the inside out. Felix toggled Pit’s status in his display, bringing up his conditions.

Status Condition: Curse of Flame

It—it’s still there. Felix ran his hands through his hair. Fuck!

He’d nearly used up all the Essence he’d collected in the Domain, too. All of their efforts, gone in an instant.

“All…all my…I couldn’t control it.”

“What?” Felix leaned closer to Pit’s head. “What’re you talking about? Don’t blame yourself. I can’t do it either.” He’d tried, so many times. The curse rejected his command over flesh, a power that he’d once used to rip monsters in half. Healing, it seemed, was far more complicated than destroying. “And it’s my fault for thinking it would be different coming from you. This curse…it needs something drastic.”

“No.” Pit lifted his head, and struggled to a sitting position. “You’re not allowed to try it.”

“Unite the Lost would fix you!”

“I’m not broken!”

Silence flooded their hut, thick and heavy. Felix sat back in it, unsure how to respond.

“I’m—I’m just…” Pit shook his head, barding jangling around his neck. “I’m hurt, but I can still fight. And you can’t know how much significance that Skill will cost you.” Pit nosed his beak into Felix’s chest. “I lost my wings. I can’t risk losing you, too.”

“Pit…”

His friend was right. Unite the Lost always cost him exorbitant amounts of significance to use, and if he was drained of too much of it, then Felix would simply…cease. Every other time he’d used the Skill he’d been flushed with significance, having just been stolen from armies of powerful combatants or vast beings with Chthonic Tribute. Since they’d forged his pillars, however, Felix had been busted down to his bare minimum. Just what made him, him.

“Pit, if that’s what you want, then okay. I won’t risk it.” Felix ran his hands over Pit’s glossy, feathered head. “I—I don’t like seeing you in pain.”

“I’m fine,” Pit lied. His big golden eyes blinked. “Let’s focus on kicking this Domain’s butt.”

Felix huffed a laugh, and it was only half faked. “Sure. Onward and upward, then.”

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